Alive and Well!!

9/2/05

Africa at long last!! At times it really doesn’t seem real. Of course there are other times, (like on Tuesday, when I shocked myself while touching an ungrounded plug adapter) that I am VERY aware that I’m in a third world environment.
So far, I’ve had the opportunity to experience the big city of Ougadougou (Population 1.8 million), eat some rather strange food (cous cous a.k.a. mini pasta), and attempt to communicate with dozens of friendly people here in my broken French. The weather is quite different than I ever imagined, being the rainy season, it is VERY humid and the inside temp. (as in my house) hangs at a rather sticky 80 degrees. The outskirts of the city (where I will be staying for most of my training) is actually much cleaner than I expected as well. Being a VERY poor county, I never thought they would have an organized garbage system; but sure enough, if you can afford it, a little donkey cart comes by every so often and picks up your trash……..where it’s dumped, I have yet to discover; but I have a feeling it’s not far off.
The people here are more helpful and friendly than one would ever imagine. Even though it seems like every other person here speaks a different language there are many who speak French and about 1/100 speak a good broken English! So far, I’ve heard French, Fulfulde, Moray, and some other unknown dialects! I can’t wait to be able to tackle French and move onto the next available language!
Many more stories to tell!